Rachel had to clench her fist in order to not slap him around the face, wondering if he had hit his head on his way in the office. "Stand up Eddie, right now. Are you crazy?" She moved away from him, pulling back the hand he had taken hold of as she began to pace the room once more. "As if I want to remember our engagement along with this day and what you've said. You've lost your damn mind."

But Eddie couldn't stop his smile as he followed her wishes and moved to stand up, watching her pace but smiling all the same. "You said our engagement."

"What are you on about?"

"Our engagement. That's what you said. That means you still see us being engaged one day. No? You still want this, just not now, right?" His questions were small, not wanting to jump ahead of himself but feeling a small flicker of hope as he replayed her words in his head.

"I don't know anymore."

His stomach dropped. "You don't mean that."

"Yes, I do." She looked at him, misery written into every line of her face. "I can't do this anymore, Eddie. Being with you is like a rollercoaster. Less than five months, and how many times have we come close to going our separate ways?"

"That's not a fair comparison," he argued. "We've had more in those months than most people do in years!"

"That's my point!" she yelled, rounding on him with furious eyes and flushed cheeks. "We rushed into this too quickly! If we'd met in a year's time, you would never be offering to adopt two children you'd basically only just met! Because it would be insane!"

"Since when was there a timeline for this?" he demanded. "There isn't a manual, Rach, it's a pretty unique situation! All we can do is go by what's right and I know you and me are right! You know it too."

But she shook her head. "No, I don't."

"Damn it, Rachel! What do I have to do to convince you? I love you and I love those children!"

"That doesn't make you their father!"

He physically flinched back, unable to hide his hurt expression. She saw it, but pushed down the guilt it caused as she swallowed hard, and continued at a more normal volume. "You answered so quickly yesterday. However you think you feel, your instinctive reaction was that you aren't their father. You must see why that's a problem."

"Rachel-,"

"You aren't ready for this, Eddie. First your reaction at the scan, now this- you aren't ready to be a father again, especially not of twins. I wanted to badly to believe that you were, I ignored all the signs to the opposite."

He looked desperate, arguments evaporating into thin air in the face of her heartbroken resolve. "You're wrong."

"I don't think I am. I wish I were." She couldn't help but reach out, cup his cheek with her hand as she struggled to blink back tears. "You're not ready. And so… so you can't be a part of our lives. It isn't fair, not to them, not to you and not to me."

"I love you." He clutched at her hand, hoping frantically that she'd change her mind, that he'd think of some way to convince her otherwise, even as he pushed down the small sliver of doubt that wondered if she was right. She choked back a sob, feeling as if the air was being squeezed from her lungs.

"And I love you. It doesn't matter."

"Of course it does!" Before she could stop him, he surged forward, pressed his lips to hers but for perhaps the first time, she remained motionless under his touch. "It matters!"

"I'm sorry."

She was, she thought, as she pushed him from her and stumbled away, regaining her balance as she stepped out of the office. Bridget still wasn't there, thankfully, since if she had been, their private life would be rather less private. She forced herself to hold it together until she'd managed to dart through the maze of corridors and find her way outside, circling around to the back of the school where even if someone was looking, they'd never find her. Only then did she slide to the ground, nails digging into her palms as she gasped in desperate breaths and fumbled for her phone. "Mel? I need you to pick me up. Now, please."

Eddie stood in the office window and watched Melissa's car speed away, feeling like his entire world had just crumbled before him. But deep down, as much as it was killing him, he knew Rachel was right. He knew he needed to let her go, for now anyway. He wasn't prepared to lose her forever, but putting her through unnecessary stress at this moment was entirely selfish on his part. He knew he'd done wrong, and this was a punishment for his own actions. He heard Joyce return and asked her to cancel any calls or meetings unless deadly important, taking a few moments to sit on the sofas and reflect on the past months. Maybe Rachel was right, maybe they needed some time apart to find out what it really was they wanted for one another. Eddie knew he wanted to be with Rachel, and had accepted that it included taking on two new children into his life. He'd welcomed the role of being a dad again, but he needed to figure out if that's what was best for Rachel too. She was right, he had freaked out twice now and that had caused her hurt and pain both times. She didn't deserve that, and it was high time he sat and figured out why that was. He couldn't run back to her now, couldn't bombard her with apologies and promises when she needed space. Growing a child was exhausting, he didn't have to be a woman himself to know that one. He was going to give her everything she asked for, but make it clear as day that things were not done from his end. It would break his heart to see her every day and not be close to her, but that was a cross he was willing to bear for her. He would take the pain if it meant she didn't have any, would sacrifice his own happiness to bring her here. No matter what that meant for him, he'd made sure to respect her wishes. He hoped and prayed to Gods he didn't believed in that what she really wanted was to be with him, but he was leaving that decision entirely to her. With his head feeling mildly clearer now he'd given himself a stern talking to, he stood and decided that making her life easier needed to start at work. So he switched back to his professional head and walked to her chair, ignoring the pang in his heart as he sat in her seat and started to work through her paperwork and sort it through importance. At least this way his mind was occupied, and his personal problems could be solved later.

As soon as Mel saw her sister sat on the steps in front of the school, she knew something serious had happened. She had spent the early hours of the morning convincing Rachel not to go into work, but her sister hadn't listened. It took everything she had in her to not walk into the school and punch Eddie straight in his nose, as she had every right to believe this was his doing. But the tear tracks on Rachel's face stopped her from doing so and instead she scooped her up into her arms like she did Phillip when he was small and bundled her into the car. This was just another time she was picking her sister up and dealing with a mess Eddie had caused, and she was determined to make sure it was the last.

The car ride was silent, and it was only as they pulled up outside of Melissa's house that Mel finally asked what had happened.

"Me and Eddie are done Mel. It's over."